IV.  (human  Hymnolocft    . 


THE 


CHRISTIAN    EXAMINER. 


VOLUME     LXIX. 


FIFTH     SERIES,    VOLUME    VII 


NOVEMBER,     1860. 


"  Porro  si  sapientia  Deus  est, Terus  philosophus  est  amator  Dei."  —  St.  Augustine. 


BOSTON: 
BY     THE     PROPRIETOR, 

A  i    WALKER,  WISE,  &   CO.'S,   245    Washington   Street, 

LONDON:    EDWARD   T.    WIMTKI  ELD,  178  Strand. 

18  60. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1860,  by 

THOMAS   B.   FOX, 

in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts. 


University  Press,  Cambridge : 
Printed  by  Welch,  Bigelow,  and  Company. 


18G0.]  Old  Faith  and  ZVS  w  Knowledge.  401 

and  satisfactory  as  those  which  it  takes  away  once  were. 
Each  age  must  accept  its  work  and  office  in  the  authentication 
of  the  grounds  and  compass  of  faith,  in  the  form  in  which  the 
exacting  task  comes  to  it.  We  recall  gratefully  the  toils  of 
the  Benedictines  copying  the  letter  of  the  Scripture  on  the 
diamond  pa&  of  Lvory,  or  on  the  spacious  folios  of  parchment, 
and  touching  the  ornamental  characters  with  the  exquisite 
tints  of  blue  and  gold.  But  now  that  thai  mechanical  toil  is 
spared  us,  and  the  (lull  lead,  and  the  cheap  ink,  and  the  paper 
bleached  from  beggars^  rags,  have  made  the  record  to  have  no 
cost,  the  same  skill  must  go  to  its  interpretation,  the  same  love 
must  he  lavished  upon  its  spirit.  There  is  one  fact,  at  least, 
to  reassure  the  weak  or  the  fearful.  There  are  men,  not  few 
nor  singular,  who  have  faced  all  this  destructive  work  of  criti- 
cism, have  weighed  all  its  blows,  and  have  yielded  everything 
that  it  lias  hroken  or  rendered  unserviceable  ;  and  who  arc  all 
the  stronger  in  their  faith  in  things  divine  and  holy,  all  the 
more  stout  in  their  loyalty  to  Christ  and  his  truth,  all  the 
more  hopeful  of  the  cause  and  the  kingdom  which  is  com- 
mitted to  Jlim.  Having  centred  all  upon  Christ,  —  his  grace 
and  fulness,  —  they  have  found  peace  and  strength.  They  may 
seem  to  deal  rashly  or  threateningly  with  the  belief  or  the 
things  believed,  that  are  dear  to  others.  But  it  may  be  well 
to  heed  in  season  their  warnings  and  appeals  as  they  try  to 
dissever  the  substance  of  truth  from  traditions  and  supersti- 
tions,  lest  the  cradle  of  faith  should  prove  to  be  the  grave  of 
religion. 


Note.  —In  a  note  to  Dr.  Williams's  Review  of  Bunsen's  Biblical  Re- 
searches (page  75  of  the  American  edition  of  "Essays  ami  Reviews**),  Dr. 
Palfrey  i-  represented,  by  a  reference  to  his  work  on  the  Jewish  Scriptures, 
estricting  the  idea  of  revelation  to  Moses  and  tin  Gospels?  to  the  exclu- 
sion of  "the  Psalms  and  Prophets  and  Epistles.**  This  is  an  oversight  or  an 
error  on  the  part  of  Dr.  Williams.     Dr.  Palfrey  recognizes  no  Buch  difference 

between  the   GrOSpelfl  and  Epistles. 


34 


R    8   1933  ' 


German  Hymnology .  [Nov. 

Vu 
Art.  IV.  —  GERMAN   HYMNOLOGY. 

1.  Geistliche  Gedichte.    Von  Nicolaus  Ludwig,  Graf  von  Zinzen- 

dorf.     (Spititual  Poems.    By  Count  Zinzendorf.)     Stuttgart. 
1845. 

2.  Geistliche  Lieder.     (Spiritual  Songs.)     Von  Friedrich  Gottlieb 

Klopstock.     Leipsic.     1839. 

3.  Geistliche   Oden  und  Lieder.     (Spiritual   Odes   and   Songs.)     Yon 

Christian  Furchtegott  Gellert.     Leipsic.     1757. 

4.  Worte  des  Herzens.     (Words  of  the  Heart.)     Von  Johann  Casfar 

Lavater.     Zurich.     1771. 

5.  Versuch  eines    allgemeinen   evangelischen    Gesang-  und   Gebetbuchs. 

(Essay  towards  a  universal  Evangelic  Hymn  and  Prayer-Book. 
By  Chevalier  Bunsen.)     Hamburg.     1833. 

In  our  last  number  we  gave  some  specimens  of  old  German 
hymns,  with  interspersed  historical  and  biographical  notices, 
from  Luther  down  to  Zinzendorf.  In  this  paper  we  shall 
attempt  a  short  survey  of  the  history  of  German  hymnology, 
showing  the  working  out  of  the  idea  of  the  hymn  in  German 
hands,  and  remarking  upon  some  of  the  chief  characteristics  of 
the  German  hymns,  as  tried  by  the  standard  of  the  ideal  itself. 

The  work  of  Bunsen,  named  in  the  above  list,  the  fruit 
of  a  sixteen  years'  labor,  reminds  us  of  the  singular  com- 
bination of  poetic  enthusiasm  and  plodding  patience  which 
marks  our  German  brethren.  Their  scientific  and  reflective 
thoroughness  in  whatever  they  undertake  goes  with  them  even 
into  poetry  and  piety,  and  not  least  strikingly  is  it  exemplified 
in  that  department  which  requires  so  fine  a  fusion  of  both 
those  elements,  the  constructing  of  hymns  and  hymn-books. 

The  name  of  Klopstock  marks  the  era  when  the  longing 
of  the  German  national  genius  to  understand  and  supply  its 
wants  in  the  hymnological  direction  began  to  express  itself 
distinctly  ;  but  it  had  long  been  at  work  more  or  less  ob- 
scurely, in  the  struggles  of  mystic,  moralist,  and  dogmatist  to 
mould  into  an  effective  shape  the  elements  of  sacred  song. 

What  is  the  true  and  great  idea  of  the  Hymn,  —  what  is  its 
purpose,  as  the  German  heart,  and,  we  may  say,  the  Christian 
heart,  quickened  by  the  Reformation,  has  so  long  been  seeking, 
more  or  less  consciously,  to  fulfil  it  ? 


1800.]  German  Hymnology.  403 

The  Hymn  lias  been  happily  described  as  '*  the  voice  of  the 
Christian  heart  in  Bong."  "The  heart  of  the  Christian  con- 
gregation uttering  itself  in  song,"  may  stand  as  a  good  sy- 
nonyme  for  the  hymns  of  the  Church.  The  Church  may  be 
regarded  as  a  household,  a  fold,  or  a  camp.  Hymns  are  the 
songs  that  cheer  the  family  ;  lull  the  flock  to  rest,  or  had  it 
On  after  the  Shepherd  through  wild  and  rocky  places  :  that 
BUStain,  stimulate,  and  steady  the  heart  of  the  army  of  mar- 
tyr-, with  the  consciousness  of  the  great  Providence  overhead, 
the  spiritual  fountain  within,  and  the  triumph  which  awaits 
the  faithful. 

The  early  Christians  felt  themselves  to  he  a  band  of  armed 
covenanters.  In  their  militant  pilgrimage  they  cheered  the 
way,  lightened  the  toil,  enlivened  the  loneliness  of  many  a 
pass,  and  nerved  themselves  for  many  a  conflict,  by  songs  of 
encouragement  and  admonition,  hymns  which  recited  stirring 
truth,  or  psalms  which  breathed  the  home-longing  after  God 
and  holiness  and  heaven.  There  was  one  leader,  one  warfare, 
and  one  crown. 

Such  has  been  the  significance  of  the  Hymn  at  every  revival 
of  the  primitive  religion.  So  it  was  in  Saxony,  —  so  it  was  in 
Bohemia,  —  so  in  Scotland, —  so  in  England,  —  so  have  we  seen 
and  felt  it  at  intervals  in  our  own  land.  Whenever  the  Church 
has  come  out  from  the  wilderness  of  trouble  and  persecution 
into  comfort  and  repute,  music,  sharing  the  common  degen- 
eracy of  the  rest  of  the  service,  has  too  generally  tended  to 
become  more  a  remembrancer  of  the  past  than  a  quicken,  t  to 
tin-  present  and  the  future,  —  instead  of  waking  the  soul  and 
calling  it  up  to  heaven,  has  come  down  to  charm  the  carnal 
ear  of  dreaming  indolence.  Between  ceremony  ami  contro- 
versy, how  hard  it  is  to  get  back  again  that  old  feeling,  at  once 
of  catholicity  and  of  individual  accountableness,  which  alone 
can  make  the  Church  hymn  the  song  of  the  pilgrim  army  of 
the  one  God,  under  the  one  Captain,  marching  on  to  one  vic- 
tory, triumph,  and  salvation  ! 

The  influence  of  Protestantism  upon  hymnology  is  a  curious 
and  instructive  subject,  and  one  which  connects  itself  through- 
out with  the  study  of  German  hymn-writing  and  hymn-writers. 
Protestantism,  as  a  contest  for  opinion  or  organization,  can 


404  German  Hymnology.  [Nov. 

hardly  produce  a  true  hymn.  It  can  do  that  only  as  it  is  an 
impulse  of  self-defence,  a  struggle  for  the  very  life  and  free- 
dom of  the  soul.  That,  indeed,  is  what  Protestantism  was, 
with  Luther,  in  the  beginning,  though  he  himself,  as  he  grew 
strong  in  ecclesiastical  influence,  sadly  degenerated  from  that 
old  simplicity  ;  and  after  his  death  Protestantism  became  to  a 
very  great  extent  an  essentially  unmusical  thing. 

When  Luther  appeared,  the  popular  heart  had  been  long 
yearning  for  the  opportunity  to  utter  itself  in  vernacular  song. 
As  early  as  Charlemagne,  we  find  the  beginning  made  of 
translating  church  hymns  into  the  vernacular,  under  the  Im- 
perial auspices.  In  the  thirteenth  century,  we  find  one  Brother 
Berthold  complaining  that  heresy  was  propagating  itself  by 
putting  songs  into  the  people's  mouths,  and  calling  on  the 
orthodox  to  make  safe  and  sound  ones  for  their  children  in 
self-defence.  The  fifteenth  century  was  greatly  busied  in 
translating  Latin  hymns.  Thus,  it  has  been  said,  was  the 
Reformation  already  announcing  itself  from  afar.  But  Luther 
found  the  people  ready  to  take  these  hymns  and  use  them.  The 
time  was  come  when,  in  this  revival  of  the  old  simplicity  of 
the  faith,  they  too,  like  the  first  disciples,  were  to  teach  and 
admonish  each  other  in  psalms  and  hymns  and  spiritual  songs, 
—  not  merely  to  be  sung  to,  but  to  sing  to  each  other,  and  to 
sing  all  together,  as  a  band  of  brethren  and  sisters  in  the  Lord. 

This  practical  use  of  the  Hymn,  as  the  song  of  the  Christian 
pilgrim  and  soldier,  which  was  made  so  prominent  in  the 
hymns  of  the  Reformation,  though  often  sadly  lost  out  of  sight 
in  the  subsequent  successes  and  struggles  of  Protestants,  was 
never  more  signally  illustrated  than  in  the  Moravian  hymnol- 
ogy  with  a  notice  of  which  we  closed  our  former  paper,  and 
which,  through  the  Methodists  and  Montgomery,  has  infused  a 
spirit  into  English  hymnology  that' is  destined  never  to  die. 

With  Klopstock,  who  was  born  in  1724,  begins  a  new  period 
of  German  hymnology.  His  name  opens  that  era  when  the 
influences  of  the  age  of  Frederick  the  Great,  the  age  of  free- 
thinking,  of  rationalism,  the  age  of  Lavater  and  Rousseau,  told 
upon  the  hymns  as  upon  the  faith  of  the  Church.  It  was  the 
period  of  what  the  Germans  call  the  "  watering  [dilution]  of 
the  hymn-books."     The  great  revival  of  poetic  aspiration  and 


I860.]  German  Hgmnology.  105 

ambition,  so  signalized  in  Klopstock,  led  to  tbc  idea  of  re- 
touching and  investing-  with  a  new  poetic  charm  tbc  ehuxcb 
versification. 

Klopstock's  <>wn  hymns,  upon  the  whole,  illustrate  tbc  say- 
ing, bow  much  easier  it  is  to  criticise  than  to  create.  His 
aspiration  surpassed  bis  achievement.  No  man  has  described 
and  distinguished  better  tban  he  what  belongs  to  the  hymn 
and  to  the  psalm;  hut  when  he  came  to  actual  performance,  he 
produced  too  often  what  would  be  called  indeed,  by  a  common 
and  false  taste  and  piety,  poetical  and  eloquent,  but  what 
should  rather  be  called  still"  and  declamatory.  We  give  one 
hymn  as  a  specimen  of  his  best  style. 

"RESUBRECTION. 

"  Thou  shalt  rise,  —  yea,  thou  shah  rise,  my  dust ! 
Sleep  a  few  days  in  trust, 
Then  shalt  thou,  waking, 

Behold  Heaven's  morning  breaking  ! 
Hallelujah! 

"All  shall  bloom  again  that  's  buried  now! 
Lord  of  the  Harvest,  thou 

Thy  sheaves  shall  number, 

The  souls  in  Christ  that  slumber; 
Praise  to  thy  name  ! 

"  Day  of  thanks  !     Thou  day  of  joyful  tears  ! 
God's  day  of  endless  year-  ! 
When,  in  earth's  keeping, 

His  time  1  have  been  sleeping. 

Thy  trump  shall  sound  ! 

"Like  to  them  thai  dream  shall  we  be  then, 
With  JestM  entering  in 
To  share  his  gladn 

Where  pilgrim  toil  and  sadness 

Shall  be  no  more  ! 

"I  shall  tread,  with  Christ,  the  Holy  I'! 
Beholding  face  to  face 
The  Eternal  splendor, 

And  thanks  and  praises  render 
For  evermore  !  " 

Between  the  false  and  inflated  fervors  of  the  intense  style  of 
piety   and   poesy  on  the  one  band,  and  the  watery  dilutions  of 


406  German  Hymnology.  [Nov. 

the  prosing  rhymers  on  the  other,  there  were  some  who  kept 
nearer  the  golden  mean  of  a  pure  and  simple  taste.  The  most 
prominent  of  these  are  Gellert  and  Lavater,  of  whom  the 
former,  however,  sometimes  lapsed  into  a  sentimental  prim- 
ness, and  the  latter  into  a  didactic  dryness,  which  may  well  be 
conceived  when  we  are  told  that  he  wrote  his  fifty-four  hymns 
in  eleven  days,  unde^r  a  sense  of  religious  duty.  Of  that 
charming  fabulist  and  beloved  German  soul,  Christian  Fear- 
God  Gellert,  we  would  gladly  speak  longer,  but  must  leave 
him  here  with  those  graceful  and  just  lines  written  on  looking 
at  his  portrait,  which  we  translate  from  Klamer-Schmidt :  — 

"  These  are  the  wasted  cheeks,  whereon 
No  dawn  of  passionate  desire, 
No  wandering  glimmer  of  the  fire 
Of  giddy  folly,  ever  shone. 
This  is  the  face  that  looked  on  death, 
As  friend  on  friend  he  welcometh. 
His  hollow,  spiritual  eye, 
Deep-sunken  in  the  warning  countenance, 
Reveals  the  touching  history  of  the  heart, 
Speaks  an  angelic  tolerance, 
And,  with  one  tear,  stings  vice  more  poignantly 
Than  Swift  or  Kabner  could  with  all  their  finest  art." 

In  passing  on  from  the  last  century  into  the  present,  we 
meet  three  successive  and  striking  epochs  in  the  hymnological 
development  of  the  German  genius  ;  first,  the  short  and  bril- 
liant passage  of  that  rarely  gifted  son  of  poesy,  philosophy, 
and  piety,  Novalis,  across  the  field  of  human  vision  ;  secondly, 
the  Liberation  war  of  1813,  which  was  a  struggle  at  once  of 
faitli  and  freedom,  a  simultaneous  blooming  of  patriotism, 
piety,  and  poesy,  and  which  brought  out  such  spirits  as  Arndt, 
Korner,  and  Schenkendorf ;  and,  finally,  the  third  centenni- 
versary  of  the  Reformation  in  1817,  which  created  in  the  Ger- 
man heart  a  wonderful  renewal  of  the  yearning  for  a  new 
church  life. 

"  The  spiritual  poesy  of  the  present,"  says  Biissler,  "  is  found 
in  the  act  of  moving  onward.  As  its  starting-point,  we  may 
mark  the  year  1817  ;  as  its  aim  and  problem,  the  penetration 
of  the  religious  poetic  feeling  with  the  objective,  biblical  faith 
of  the  Evangelic  Church Our  spiritual  singers  still  sit 


18G0.]  German  Hymnology.  407 

solitary  as  al  the  waters  of  Babylon  ;  but  their  songs  point 
across,  like  a  prophecy,  to  the  new  Zion  which  is  to  con 

In  fact,  modern  German  Bymnology  may  be  said  to  be  rep- 
resented by  three  schools,  which  we  may  call  the  Romantic, 
the  Moravian,  and  the  Orthodox.  Not  that  the  characteristics 
of  these  Beveral  classes  are  not  often  found  in  unison  ;  but 
there  are,  distinguishable,  the  three  tendencies  we  have  endeav- 
ored to  name  ;  —  one,  to  make  the  hymn  a  vehicle  of  the 
amount  of  truth,  according  to  the  creed;  another,  to  make  it 
the  musical  meditation  of  a  pious  and  poetic  soul ;  and  a  third, 
to  make  it  the  instrument  of  expressing  and.  enkindling  the 
social  sentiment  of  the  spiritual  brotherhood. 

The  so-called  Evangelical  hymn-writers  of  these  modern 
times  who  have  written  expressly  for  the  use  of  the  Lutheran 
churches  seem  to  us,  with  all  their  fervor  and  fluency  and 
melody,  to  make  the  hymn  too  prominently  an  organ  of  set- 
ting forth  the  doctrines  and  duties  of  the  orthodox  religion. 
It  becomes  a  rhythmical  indoctrination,  admonition,  or  exhor- 
tation.    In  aiming  to  be  exhaustive,  it  becomes  exhausting. 

The  Romantic  and  Mystic  elements,  represented  in  the 
hymns  of  the  beloved  and  too  early  lost  Novalis,  —  in  those 
of  Riickert  and  Uhland,  and  a  host  of  other  poets  who  have 
written  hymns  because  poetry  was  to  them  a  priesthood,  and 
piety  a  part  of  their  poetic  nature,  —  these  elements  are  such 
as  the  Church,  to  be  a  true  Church  of  the  Christian  spirit, 
cannot  spare  ;  and  if,  as  a  recent  German  writer  regrets,  no 
Large  and  deep  soul  has  yet  arisen  "  to  give  the  inward  spirit- 
ual lyric  the  full  harmonious  voice  of  ecclesiastical  commun- 
ion,''  nevertheless  the  great  company  of  the  hymn-writers,  in 
and  out  of  the  ecclesiastical  pale,  are  nobly  heralding  and  in- 
augurating the  new  era  of  the  Church  universal  and  invisible  ; 
and  the  nine  hundred  hymns  of  the  little  book  called  "In  the 
Stillness,"  which  we  described  in  our  former  paper,  are  a  noble 
band  of  trumpeters  (an  army  in  themselves)  to  this  host  of 
soldiers  of  the  cross  who,  without  the  uniform  of  an  external 
church,  all  recognize  the  word  of  the  one  spiritual  Captain. 

We  wisli  we  had  space  to  let  this  '*  storehouse  of  sacred  jew- 
elry "  speak  for  itself,  as  in  the  Song  of  the  Sabbath,  begin- 


408  German  Hymnology.  [Not. 

"  Peaceful,  holy  Sabbath-time  ! 
Like  a  sweet  and  solemn  chime 
From  the  high  eternal  dome, 
Callest  thou  life's  pilgrim  home, 
Bidding  man,  from  earth's  delusion, 
From  its  turmoil  and  confusion, 
From  its  pleasures  transitory, 
Turn  his  eyes  to  heavenly  glory." 

But  we  must  content  ourselves  with  one  specimen. 

This  is  a  hymn  by  the  "  Hidden  One  "  (Die  Verborgene'),  as 
she  signs  herself,  meaning,  we  suppose,  one  whose  life  is  hid 
with  Christ  in  God. 

"BE   STILL! 

"  Peace  !   Be  still ! 
In  this  night  of  sorrow  bow, 
O  my  heart,  contend  not  thou  ! 
What  befalls  thee  is  God's  will,  — 
Peace  !   Be  still ! 

"  Peace  !   Be  still ! 
All  thy  murmuring  words  are  vain,  — 
God  will  make  the  riddle  plain  : 
"Wait  His  word  and  bear  His  will,  — 
Peace  !  Be  still ! 

"  Hold  thee  still ! 
Though  the  Father  scourge  thee  sore, 
Cling  thou  to  Him  all  the  more, 
Let  Him  mercy's  work  fulfil ! 
Hold  thee  still ! 

"  Hold  thee  still ! 
Though  the  good  Physician's  knife 
Seem  to  touch  thy  very  life, 
Death  alone  He  means  to  kill, — 
Hold  thee  still ! 

"  Lord,  my  God ! 
Give  me  grace,  that  I  may  be 
Thy  true  child,  and  silently 
Own  thy  sceptre  and  thy  rod, 
Lord,  my  God ! 

"  Shepherd  mine ! 
From  thy  fulness  give  me  still 
Faith  to  do  and  bear  Thy  will. 
Till  the  morning  light  shall  shine, — 
Shepherd  mine  ! " 


1SG0.]  German  Hymnology.  \Q% 

In  looking  over  the  vast  range  of  materia]  which  our  subject 
requires  us  to  review,  we  can  hardly  fail,  one  would  think,  to 
have  our  Bymnological,  not  to  say  our  Theological  ideas,  some- 
what enlarged. 

What  is  a  hymn  ?  It  is  a  devout,  a  religious  song.  But  it 
Deed  not,  it  cannot  be  a  versified  sermon  or  homily,  a  dog- 
matic statement  in  metre,  a  confession  of  speculative  faith. 
It  will  not  always  directly  address  itself  to  God,  by  name  or 
without  name,  even  in  praise  ;  still  less  can  a  hymn  he  de- 
lined,  as  some  would  seem  to  imply,  a  musical  prayer.  A 
true  catholicity  will  not  find  Christian  hymns  solely  or  spe- 
cially where  the  names  of  the  Holy  Persons  are  expressly 
mentioned  ;  but  wherever  the  Holy  Spirit  breathes,  and  the 
Father's  love  is  felt,  and'  a  yearning  is  manifest  for  the  Divine 
Sonship,  charity  will  believe  that  it  was  the  spirit  of  grace, 
communicated  by  the  Father  through  the  Son,  which  inspired 
the  song,  whatever  men  may  call  it,  and  which  makes  the 
writer,  in  the  secret,  though  perhaps  only  fitful,  aspirations  of 
his  heart,  at  least,  one  of  the  real  Church  universal  and 
spiritual. 

A  hymn  is  the  song  of  a  soul  celebrating  the  joy  with  which 
it  contemplates  the  works  and  ways  of  God,  the  admiration 
and  delight  it  feels  in  being  his  creature  and  child,  in  being  a 
part  of  his  creation  and  his  Church.  A  devout  and  musical 
meditation,  then,  may  be  a  hymn,  no  less  than  a  musical  ex- 
pression  of  direct  prayer,  penitence,  or  praise.  A  cold  medi- 
tation, indeed,  is  not  a  hymn,  any  more  than  a  hot  anathema 
is ;  but  that  is  because  it  is  not  a  poem,  to  begin  with.  A 
meditation,  however,  which  flows  forth  in  harmonious  num- 
bers, from  a  harmonized  nature,  contentedly,  gratefully,  and 
charitably  contemplating  the  ways  of  the  Divine  Providence, — 
that  is  a  hymn;  and  though  the  metre  may  be  too  particular 
to  be  sung  by  a  choir  with  the  voice,  such  pieces  may  be  sung 
"with  the  spirit  and  the  understanding,"  and  accordingly  they 
are  coming  to  be  more  and  more  largely  admitted  to  their 
silent  seats  in  our  hvninological  collections.  Sweet  and 
comely  and  wholesome  is  it  thus  to  recognize  in  our  exter- 
nal and   ecclesiastical   provisions  the  presence   and  claims  of 

VOL.  LX1X. — 5th  S.  VOL.  VII.  NO.  III.  35 


410  German  Hymnology.  [Nov. 

the  Church  invisible b  the  Church  of  the  mystic  gift  and  grace, 
the  Church  of  the  spirit  and  of  humanity. 

"When  we  study  hymnology  in  this  catholic  spirit,  how  does 
that  goodly  Church  —  whose  architecture  is  music  (and  not 
frozen,  but  flowing  music) — the  fellowship  of  the  Christian 
hymn-writers,  in  every  language,  and  certainly  not  least  in 
the  German  —  widen  its  doors  and  its  dimensions ! 

But  it  is  time  we  passed  on  to  consider  the  leading  charac- 
teristics —  the  merits  and  the  faults  —  of  the  hymns  of  that 
language  with  which  our  paper  is  specially  occupied. 

"We  have  compared  German  hymnology  to  an  ocean.  When 
we  look  out  over  this  ocean,  and  before  we  listen  to  its  music, 
we  are  struck  not  only  with  the  multitude,  but  with  the  length, 
of  its  waves.  We  mean  the  enormous  and  alarming  length 
of  the  German  hymns,  considered  especially  as  hymns  to  be 
sung.  They  tell  of  a  race  of  writers  almost  as  prolix  as  they 
are  prolific.  We  should  say  that  in  Knapp's  Treasury  of 
Evangelic  Song  the  pieces  seldom  contained  less  than  six 
stanzas,  oftener  reaching  to  twelve,  and  quite  often  to  the  old 
Scotch  sermon  length  of  nfteenthly,  the  stanzas,  too,  being 
very  generally  from  six  to  eight  or  ten  lines  long.  They  cer- 
tainly illustrate  remarkably  the  singular  union,  in  the  German 
spirit,  of  patience  and  enthusiasm.  And  yet  one  would  think 
these  qualities  must  be  greater  in  the  writers  than  in  the  read- 
ers or  singers  of  such  hymns.  They  show  too,  however,  how 
much  more  important  a  place  in  church  service  singing  holds 
among  the  Germans  than  with  us.  "  Teaching  and  admonish- 
ing each  other  in  psalms  and  hymns  and  spiritual  songs,"  they 
do  certainly  mean  to  fulfil  this  part  of  the  Apostle's  injunction 
as  well  as  the  other,  "making  melody  in  your  hearts  to  the 
Lord." 

One  of  the  rocks  on  which  the  German  hymns  are  often  in 
danger  of  foundering  is  too  great  explicitness.  The  eloquence 
damages  the  poetry,  and  both  injure  the  practical  and  devo- 
tional impression. 

With  all  their  faults,  however,  the  German  hymns  have 
many  and  marked  charms.  The  first  thing  that  strikes  one, 
on  entering  into  the  spirit  of  these  hymns,  is  the  childlike 
simplicity  they  breathe.     This  is  one  of  their  most  pervading 


18G0.]  German  Hymnology.  411 

and  peculiar  traits.  It  is  true,  close  in  the  neighborhood  of 
this  beauty  is  a  blemish  into  which  it  sometimes  runs.  The 
childlike,  without  the  manly,  degenerates  into  the  childish  ; 
and  from  this  weakness  the  German  hymns  are  by  no  means 
always  exempt.  On  the  whole,  however,  a  simplicity,  at  once 
manly  and  godly,  prevails  in  the  greal  mass  of  them,  and  gives 
them  a  national  and  a  noble  distinction. 

We  nanark  next,  as  akin  to  the  simplicity,  and  growing  out 
of  it,  the  strength  and  fervor  of  faith  which  they  manifest, — 
faith  both  in  the  holy  principles  of  religion  and  in  the  holy 
and  divine  persons.  Often,  indeed,  the  very  thoroughness 
and  intense  earnestness  with  which  they  address  themselves 
to  the  cherished  office  of  magnifying  the  Lord,  in  all  his  char- 
acters and  attributes  and  ways  and  works,  becomes  almost,  if 
not  quite,  prosaic,  in  its  very  force  of  purpose  ;  but,  withal, 
they  certainly  move  on  as  seeing  things  invisible,  and  they 
"  lay  hold  on  eternal  life  "  as  a  veritable,  if  sometimes  too 
exclusively  as  a  future  reality. 

A  third  trait  wTe  note,  as  also  part  and  parcel  of  the  child- 
like spirit,  is  the  familiarity  of  the  German  hymns,  —  what 
Mrs.  Browning,  speaking  of  Chaucer,  calls 

"  The  infantine, 
Familiar  clasp  of  things  divine." 

"  The  dear  God,"  is  a  mode  of  speech,  with  regard  to  the 
High  and.  Holy  One,  which  belongs  to  the  German  soul.  The 
frequency  and  fondness  with  which  the  name  of  Jesus  is  dwelt 
upon,  though  not  confined  to  German  hymnology,  may,  in  the 
degree,  somewhat  excessive,  to  which  it  is  there  carried,  be  set 
down  as  a  characteristic  of  the  German  hymns.  Not  infre- 
quently "  Jesulein,"  little  Jesus,  or  Jesus  dear,  and  other 
similar  diminutives,  are  used.  "Lammlein"  (the  lambkin) 
particularly  in  the  older  hymns,  is  often  applied  to  the  Saviour. 
The  saying  that  "men  are  but  children  of  a  larger  growth," 
the  Germans,  in  matters  of  religious  feeling,  certainly  illus- 
trate; in  the  better  sense  ;  or,  rather,  they  beautifully  illustrate 
Wordsworth's  expression :  — 

•■  And  I  could  wist  my  days  on  earth  to  he 
Bound  each  to  each  by  natural  piety." 


412  German  Hymnology.  [Nov. 

A  German  hymnologist  requires  of  a  good  hymn  that  it 
should  be,  —  first,  lyrical;  secondly,  objective;  and  thirdly, 
popular.  The  first  of  these  requisites  the  German  hymns  have 
in  an  eminent  degree.  The  lyric  handling  is  always  free, 
graceful,  glowing,  and  energetic.  The  German  language  is 
peculiarly  favorable  to  the  melodious  expression  of  simple 
fervor.  Its  words  and  sounds  make  it  comparatively  easy  to 
combine,  in  versification,  compactness  with  fluency.  This  facil- 
ity, however,  is  not  always  felicity.  Too  many  of  the  German 
hymns  are  more  eloquent  than  poetical,  if  not  more  declama- 
tory than  eloquent.  As  an  offset  to  what  was  just  said  of  the 
expressiveness  of  the  language,  there  is  one  point  in  which,  by 
contrast  with  our  own,  for  instance,  it  often  fails  in  compass 
for  the  purposes  of  majesty,  and  affects  us  with  a  sense  of  the 
monotonous  ;  and  that  is,  its  not  having  the  fine  admixture 
of  the  Latin  element,  which,  in  the  English  language,  at  whose 
birth  the  Roman  genius  also  presided,  has  so  large  and  free  a 
play.  This  deficiency  is  particularly  felt  when  it  is  desired  to 
translate  into  German  the  noble  old  Latin  hymns.  You  feel 
more  as  if  Latin  were  a  dead  language,  than  when  they  pass  into 
English.  But,  to  return  to  what  we  were  saying,  the  uniform 
fidelity  of  the  German  hymn-writers  to  rhyme  and  rhythm 
forms  a  marked  and  monitory  contrast  to  a  great  deal  of  our 
English  hymnology.  Never  is  there  any  slovenliness  in  the 
rhyme  or  halting  in  the  numbers.  (If  Watts  had  been  a 
German  he  never  would  have  left  so  many  wretched  rhymes.) 
The  German  faithfulness  herein  is  worthy  of  imitation.  Is 
there  any  reason  why  good  taste  should  not  be  associated  with 
devotion  ?  If  a  hymn  is  worth  writing,  is  it  not  worth  writing 
well? 

Another  German  critic  assigns  as  the  requisites  of  a  good 
hymn  these  four :  first,  Scripturalness ;  second,  clearness ; 
third,  kindliness  ;  fourth,  propriety.  The  last  of  these  we 
have  already  considered.  The  first  is,  in  the  German  hymns, 
carried  to  a  remarkable  extent.  In  no  church  has  the  hymn 
been  made  so  much  the  vehicle  of  indoctrination  as  in  the 
Lutheran.  The  creed,  in  all  its  finest  reasons  and  ramifica- 
tions, is  thus  made  familiar  as  household  song.  The  hymns 
of  the  Scotch  kirk  exemplify  the  same  thing.     It  has  been 


1800.]  (•>  rma/n  Hymnology,  413 

said,  that,  it'  the  Gospels  were  lost,  they  mighl  almost  be  re- 
placed by  means  of  the  quotations  from  them  in  the  Fathers. 
We  may  Bay,  almosl  without  extravagance,  thai  the  tacts  of 
the  Gospel  history  mighl  also  be  recovered  through  the  German 
hymns.  The  third  quality  named  by  the  German  editor  just 
referred  to  is  one  which,  in  the  German  hymns,  is  certainly 
and  admirably  conspicuous.  Not  only  do  they  breathe  good- 
will themselves,  bul  they  recognize  good-will  as  the  reigning 
disposition  of  God  towards  his  creature.  Their  "thoughts" 
do  not  "  on  awful  subjects  roll,  damnation  and  the  dead."  In 
many  it  is  orthodox  to  believe  in  the  final  restoration  of 
all  >ouis  to  holiness,  happiness,  and  heaven.  And  we  may  well 
ask,  Can  there  he  a  true  and  thorough  Christian  hymn  which 
does  not  rest  upon  this  doctrine  ?     Surely  such  lines  as 

"  There  is  no  Gospel  preached  in  hell," 

arc  neither  poetic  nor  inspiring,  and  so  hinder  the  true  hymn- 
spirit.  Calvinism,  in  its  thorough  and  unmitigated  form,  can- 
not produce  a  true  Christian  hymnology. 

We  would  direct  attention  then,  finally,  to  a  quality  which 
seems  to  ns  eminently  to  characterize  the  German  hymns,  and 
to  be  connected  very  closely  with  the  foregoing,  and  that  is, 
their  trumpet-like  strain  of  triumphant  exultation.  They  cry, 
it  is  true,  "  The  Lord  reigneth,  let  the  people  tremhle,"  but 
they  also  cry,  "  The  Father  reigneth,  let  the  earth  rejoice." 
They  believe,  and  are  sure,  that  good  is  destined  to  conquer 
evil  ;  that  the  Lamb  shall  finally  overcome  all  his  enemies  ; 
that  death  and  sin  shall  finally  be  swallowed  up  in  victory. 
In  the  words  of  our  own  poet's  "Hymn  to  the  Fast,"  their 
teaching  is,  that 

"  All  shall  come  back,  each  tie 
Of  pun'  affectum  shall  be  knit  again, 

Alone  shall  evil  die, 
Ami  sorrow  dwell  a  prisoner  in  thy  reign." 

It  is  this  that  makes  the  funeral  hymns  of  Germany  so  pe- 
culiarly cheerful  and  solemnly  glad. 

The  trumpet-tone  of  solemn  cheer  that  rings  oul  -<>  sweetly 
in  Montgomery's  "  Forever  with   the    Lord,      is  characteristic 
not   only  of  the  Moravian   music,  but  of  the  German    hymn 
^3* 


414  German  Hymnology.  [Xov. 

generally.     How  to-uchingly  it  is  heard  in  this  dirge  by  a  liv- 
ing hymnist,  Dr.  Sachse  :  — 

[On  Leaving   the   House.] 

"  Come  forth,  move  on  with  solemn  song ! 
The  road  is  short,  the  rest  is  long  ! 
'T  was  God  that  led  us  in  at  birth, 
God  leads  us  forth,  — 
Man's  home  is  not  this  house  of  earth. 

"  Thou  Inn  of  pilgrims  here  below ! 
Thou  gavest  joy,  thou  gavest  woe  ; 
Now,  world,  thy  door  forever  close  ! 
The  mortal  goes 
Home  to  his  heavenly  repose,  — 

"  Goes  to  a  better  place  of  rest ; 
His  weeping  friends  pronounce  him  blest. 
Good  night !  the  noonday  heavily 
Did  rest  on  thee,  — 
Farewell,  the  night  is  cool  and  free  ! 

"  Sound  out,  ye  bells,  with  festal  din, 
And  ring  the  blessed  Sabbath  in, 
That  calls,  '  Here  ends  life's  weary  road ; 
Lay  down  your  load, 
And  rest  in  Christ,  ye  sons  of  God  ! ' " 

[On  Entering   the  Graveyard.] 

"  Now,  gate  of  peace,  thy  wings  unclose  ! 
Go  in,  to  take  thy  long  repose  ! 
Ye  slumberers  in  the  earth's  calm  breast, 
Grant  this  new  guest 
A  little  space  by  you  to  rest ! 

"  How  thick  the  graves  around  us  lie  ! 
Yet  countless  mansions  shine  on  high  ; 
And  there  already  God's  free  grace 
Hath  marked  a  place 
Where  soon  shall  shine  this  faded  face. 

"  His  is  the  kingdom  and  the  power  ; 
'  I  come,'  he  cries,  '  none  knows  the  hour  ! ' 
Yea,  come,  Lord  Jesus,  speedily  ! 
We  wait  for  thee ; 
Come,  make  us  thine  eternally  ! " 


1800.]  Lamb  and  Hood.  415 

May  the  spirit  of  poesy  continue  more  and  more  to  interpret 
and  educate  the  spirit  of  piety!  May  the  hymn  refine  and 
reform  the  creed  ;  the  instincts  of  the  heart  correct  and  cure 
the  errors  of  the  mind  ;  and  the  voice  of  Christian  catholic 
faith  in  song,  Bounding  down  from  generation  to  generation, 
floating  over  sectarian  enclosures,  as  do  the  hell-tones  over  the 
churches,  waken  and  keep  alive  men's  yearning  for  the  true 
Church,  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  and  at  last  usher  in  the  ful- 
filment of  its  own  prophetic  harmony. 


Art.  V.  — LAMB   AND   HOOD. 


1.  The  Works  of  Chaklks  Lamb.     In  Four  Volumes.     A  New  Edi- 

tion.    Boston  :  Crosby,  Nichols,  Lee.  &  Co.     1860. 

2.  Memorials  of  Thomas  Hood.     Collected,  Arranged,  and  Edited  by 

his  Daughter.  With  a  Preface  and  Notes  by  his  Son.  Illus- 
trated with  Copies  from  his  own  Sketches.  In  Two  Volumes. 
Boston  :  Ticknor  and  Fields.      1860. 

A  hearty  welcome  to  this  beautiful  American  edition  of 
Lamb's  Works,  —  evidence  of  a  demand  we  are  glad  to  believe 
in,  and  intimating  the  delight  —  how  we  envy  them!  —  of  a 
new  generation  forming  a  first  acquaintance  with  "  Elia."  We 
greet,  also,  the  Memorials  of  Hood,  giving  glimpses  of  his  un- 
sullied private  life. 

The  temptation  offered  by  these  publications  to  write  of 
two  of  the  foremost  contributors  to  the  pleasant  literature  of 
our  time,  is  not  to  be  resisted,  even  at  the  risk  of  telling  a 
thrice-told  tale,  —  not  much  of  a  risk,  after  all,  since  those 
who  have  any  affinity  for  the  story  can  never  tire  of  its  repe- 
tition. Besides,  it  is  not  our  purpose  to  speak  of  them  chiefly 
as  writers.  We  are  able  now  to  remove  the  always  more  than 
semi-transparent  masks  of  the  humorists,  and  show  the  sweet, 
brave  faces  of  the  men. 

Lamb  and  Hood  had  striking  resemblances  and  marked 
differences.  We  bring  them  together  in  our  admiration:  we 
separate  them,  more  or  less,  in  any  critical  analysis.     They 


416  Lamb  and  Hood.  [Nov. 

are  "hale  fellows  well  met"  for  the  most  part,  but  do  not 
always  keep  side  by  side.  We  shall  endeavor,  therefore,  to 
indicate  wherein  was  the  unity  and  the  duality,- — to  unite 
them  finally  in  a  common  title  to  reverential  respect,  for 
higher  reasons  than  the  fascinating  felicities  of  their  pens. 

Of  humble  birth,  and  receiving  about  the  same  amount  of 
early  education,  these  "  lively  friends  "  met  suffering  on  the 
threshold  of  manhood,  and  parted  from  suffering  only  at  the 
grave.  They  became  authors  more  by  accident  than  by  de- 
sign. Literature  with  Hood  was  soon  a  profession  ;  to  Lamb 
it  was  mainly  relief  and  recreation.  The  former  kept  the 
wolf  from  the  door  by  the  earnings  of  his  brain  ;  the  latter  got 
his  livelihood  at  the  India  House,  adding  by  his  writings  a 
little  superfluity  to  a  moderate  income.  In  rare  friendships, 
neither  can  be  said  to  have  had  the  better  of  the  other.  But 
in  one  respect  Hood  was  pre-eminently  the  most  blessed. 
Lamb  never  had  a  home,  in  the  full  meaning  of  the  word ; 
Hood  was  never  without  one.  Lamb  had  to  resign  "  the  fair- 
haired  girl "  ;  it  Was  only  in  "  Reverie  "  that  he  courted  and 

called  Alice  W his  ;  and  his  children  were  but  "  Dream 

Children."  Hood's  affections,  on  the  other  hand,  were  fully 
met  and  satisfied.  He  could  write  :  "  I  never  was  anything, 
dearest,  till  I  knew  you,  and  I  have  been  a  better,  happier, 
and  more  prosperous  man  ever  since.  Lay  by  that  truth  in 
lavender,  sweetest,  and  remind  me  of  it  when  I  fail.  I  am 
writing  warmly  and  fondly,  but  not  without  good  cause. 
First,  your  own  affectionate  letter,  lately  received  ;  next,  the 
remembrances  of  our  dear  children,  pledges  —  what  darling 
ones  !  —  of  our  old  familiar  love  ;  then  a  delicious  impulse  to 
pour  out  the  overflowings  of  my  heart  into  yours  ;  and  last,  not 
least,  the  knowledge  that  your  dear  eyes  will  read  what  my 
hand  is  now'  writing.  Perhaps  there  is  an  afterthought  that, 
whatever  may  befall  me,  the  wife  of  my  bosom  will  have  this 
acknowledgment  of  her  tenderness,  worth,  excellence,  —  all 
that  is  wifely  or  womanly,  —  from  my  pen."  He  could 
say  :  "  With  such  a  wife  to  tease,  and  such  children  to 
tease  mc,  I  do  not  get  so  weary  of  life  as  some  other  peo- 
ple might."  The  light  within  his  domestic  circle,  fierce  and 
black  as  might  be  the  storm  without,  was  never  darkened. 


CON  T  ENTS. 


No.  CCXX. 

Art.  P\r,r. 

I.  Marsh  on  the  English  Language 1 

II.  Analogues  of  Satan 19 

III.  Temporal  Power  of  the  Popes 40 

IV.  The  Broad  Church 53 

V.  Woman's  Right  to  Labor 66 

VI.  John  Calvin 73 

VII.  Intercourse  with  Japan 101 

VIII.  Review  of  Current  Literature        .        .        •        .        .  124 

Note  to  Art.  III. 152 

New  Publications  Received 153 


No.  CCXXI. 


I.  Paul's  Argument  for  the  Abolition  of  the  Law 
II.  The  Women  of  Thackeray 

III.  Dr.  Huntington's  Introduction  to  Bickebstetb 

IV.  Leslie 

V.  German  Hymns 

VI.  St.  Augustine  at  Hippo 

VII.   Review  of  Current  Literati  11 


157 

1G7 
191 
218 
234 
258 


New  Publii  ltions  Received 310 


IV  CONTENTS. 

No.  CCXXII. 

Art.  Page 

I.    KlTUAL    , 313 

n.  Rural  Taste  in  North  America 340 

III.  Old  Faith  and  New  Knowledge 351 

IV.  German  Hymnology 402 

V.  Lamb  and  Hood 415 

VI.  The  World's  Need  of  Woman 435 

VII.  Review  of  Current  Literature 451 

New  Publications  Received 471 


INDEX 475 


v 


